Less than a week before the deadline for Iran to reach a deal with the P5+1 powers over its nuclear program, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog (IAEA) on Thursday blasted the Islamic republic for failing to come clean on the country’s nuclear program. Yukiya Amano, addressing the agency’s board of governors in Vienna, criticized the Islamic republic for having “not provided any explanations that enable the agency to clarify the outstanding practical measures.” Iran has for months been accused of stonewalling by Western officials – an IAEA report released in September concluded that not only was Tehran stonewalling on issues related to the possible military dimensions (PMDs) of its program, but were in fact destroying facilities in a way that “likely… further undermined the Agency’s ability to conduct effective verification.” Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers continued to pile on support for increased congressional oversight of any deal with the Islamic republic. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl.), chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, noted that the sanctions pushed through by lawmakers in Washington – which are widely credited with having brought Iran to the negotiating table – were “why Congress must have a say in any final agreement with Iran.” The subcommittee on Thursday heard testimony from several experts regarding negotiations with Iran, including former CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden, who called for “more transparency” than Iran is presently providing on its past nuclear efforts. Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fl.) called for a deal that would “dismantle Iran’s centrifuge program to prevent Iran from become a threshold nuclear state, create robust verification and monitoring mechanisms to prevent undetectable breakout, force Iran to come clean on its past nuclear activities including possible military dimensions, and cover a long enough duration that the regime won’t simply wait it out.” In comments that appeared to be directed toward administration officials who had earlier this year launched a campaign seeking to brand Democrats supporting pressure on Iran as warmongers, Deutch concluded his opening remarks by saying, “Those of us who may question the merits of an inadequate deal are not on a march and do not advocate a march to war. We simply do not want to see an agreement that allows Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon right under our noses.”

Israeli content-discovery platform Outbrain has entered into a multi-year partnership with Time, expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue sharing for the global publishing powerhouse over the course of the agreement, whose length was not disclosed. According to the deal, made public on November 18, Time will deploy the full suite of Outbrain’s solutions to power content recommendations across its global digital portfolio, including the online versions of top-selling magazines Time, People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine. “Additionally, we are providing Time Inc. with robust tools for their editorial team, empowering editors to better program and optimize content to meet their KPIs [key performance indicators],” reported Tom Foran, the New York-based chief revenue officer at Outbrain. “Time Inc. is also going to tap into our existing premium publisher network to drive incremental engaged audiences to its digital properties. …This is one of the largest deals in Outbrain’s history,” said Foran. Outbrain, founded in 2006 by Ori Lahav and Yaron Galai, has branches across the world and partners with publishers and marketers in some 55 countries. Its R&D facility is based in Netanya, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Worldwide, Outbrain now provides about 190 billion recommendations per month to consumers in more than 150 countries. Among its biggest clients are CNN.com, Slate and ESPN. “We selected Outbrain not only because the revenues were higher than others but because its engine drives better recommendations than others,” commented Andy Blau, Time Inc. senior vice president and group general manager of ad sales. (via Israel21c)